A new phonic approach to teaching kids how to read | Katy Wright | TEDxUniversity of Montana Western – YouTube Dictation Transcript & Vocabulary

1.[Music] reading instruction has been in the news quite a bit lately phonics whole language balanced literacy the science of reading and phonics again clearly we all want our kids to learn how to read and we have not not agreed on how to do that the methods we use to teach reading in this country have been all over the place I am so glad we are back to phonics but here's the problem one of the first phonic skills taught and assessed by teachers is letter naming capital letter naming naming capital letters c m PA a but we want kids to be able to sound out this do you see the problem they have to translate from letter names to letter sounds first the child has to remember the capital letter name then its lowercase counterpart then the sound it's like triple decoding some kids can make this leap just fine and don't get lost in the translation I must have because I didn't struggle maybe you did too or maybe you struggled and never really knew why many many many kids struggle because there are too many things they have learned before the thing they really need to know which is the sound why do we do this why do we teach letter names first when we want kids to know sounds some research does show that letter naming is associated with higher literacy skills but maybe that's just because knowing letter names indicates access to literacy materials or living in a print rich environment letter naming is an important skill later on but the first thing a child should know for the easiest path to reading is lowercase sounds just the sound of the letter not the name of the letter c says c m says m p says p a says a even this kind of practice can potentially make it harder for the child to decode because the name of the letter is in there kids educational TV programs preschool toys all teach capital letters or letter names first kids learn how to write their names at all caps first why do we do this it's very hard to get teachers to change the way they're teaching phonic skills because the curriculum materials that school districts adopt teach and assess capital letter naming before lowercase letter sounds we need to switch this this is a simple switch this one small switch would make a world of difference for kids assess lowercase sound knowledge first does this child know the lowercase sounds or is this child naming the letter and then saying the sound otherwise kids have to double or triple decode from letter names to letter sounds and some kids will get lost in the translation by the time they get to the end of the word they can't remember what sound that first letter made they remember the name of the letter but they have to go through the whole translation process again letter by letter from each letter name to its sound why make kids struggle like this if they don't have to okay so where do we start how do we make this change I don't know any writers of kids educational TV programs or any educational toy makers but I do know a lot of teachers what if we all just flipped that assessment what if we all just decided to assess lowercase sounds first what if we didn't go on to naming letters until all of the lowercase sounds have been mastered and what if we sang the alphabet song like this instead if parents and caregivers can do this at home before kids even start school great if not this is what we should do when they start kindergarten or if you're lucky enough to have funded public preschool programs start there here's how to do it explicitly teach the lowercase letter formation while you say the sound do it on sandpaper so it's kinesthetic let's practice with my friend Foster right now get out your sandpaper [Music] this combination of tactile Visual and oral Sensations helps the brain remember both the sound and the letter formation so like Joy here she only knows that as a t sound that's what she calls it she only knows that as an a she calls it an a she calls it a p reading then becomes a natural human development supported progression to blend these sounds together and make meaning it just flows they learn how to write the letters by tracing the letters on sandpaper while at the same time they practice the sound then they write the letter while saying the [Music] sound ah mat sister ma in this way the progression of literacy skills is actually speaking writing reading not speaking Reading Writing and why teach the letter formation and sounds in alphabetical order let's teach them in an order that lets them immediately make words to write and use here's a possible order once kids know all thease letter sounds then they can start learning to write and read spelling patterns you can find decodable readers that progress in this very specific developmental order consonant vowel consonant words short vowel words beginning and ending blends with short vowels beginning and ending consonant diagraphs like sh and CH long vowel spelling our controlled spellings dip fongs and then once they have mastered the lowercase sounds and are working through writing and reading these spelling patterns then we can teach them capital letters and letter names they need to know capitals for the beginning of sentences and to name proper nouns and they need to know letter names to be able to spell words out loud maybe someday all kids will start school knowing the lowercase sounds instead of capitals and letter names but until then when first graders come into my classroom knowing just the capital letter names or the lowercase letter names or some mixture of letter names and sounds and they're struggling because they're getting lost in the decoding translations I stop everything I apologize to them that they were taught in a way that makes it harder for their brains to decode words I ban the use of letter names until sounds have been mastered it takes about two weeks to break the habit of saying letter names and when they've mastered the lowercase letter sounds their reading and writing takes off and more importantly they start liking reading and writing more the best thing about what I've told you here today is that this way of teaching phonics has been done I didn't make it up you don't have to make it up and districts don't need to adopt million dooll reading programs to do this it's been done this way for over a hundred years in mon story classrooms just Rock Solid effective practice Let's help all kids be successful readers let's lower the case for reading it's a sound approach thank you